IFFFFFFFFFFFF.... I live in the Panhandle of Florida and I am fairly new to the sport, so the Osceola is not a big deal yet for me...(we only have Easterns in the Panhandle)....

I hunt a lot in Alabama though---near Montgomery... i always thought The North East would be nice to hunt if you could find a public area--New York , maine, penn, etc...- they seem to have a decent number of birds for the area...

OK GUYS,a couple of you keep bring up the fact that good company is better than a good location so lets here it WHO is good company to ya'll?IF you could hunt with any one person celebrity or not who would it be?

I love hunting with my 7 yr old son. The kid loves the outdoors and the thrill. It will be really cool to get a gun in his hands and watch him take his first bird. But that's a little ways down the road yet as he's still learning how to shoot. I'm not big into the "celebrity" thing so good company for me would simply be someone, friend or new aquaintence, that loves to hunt. Someone I could learn from and have a good time with.

IF,,,,,,,,,,,IF,,,,,,,,,,,IFit has been my personal experience with all the hunters that i know PERSONALLY , that hunting is not passion nor obsession, but a once in a while pass time. i an't braggin' , but i just ain't that way . i also admit that it is hard to be balanced, and not allow hunting to cause me to neglect my responsibilties of family and work .i became consumed with hunting at a very young age . i have 3 brothers and a sis' , none of which are hunters. i felt like i had to say all that to say this,,,,,IF I could , i'd like to team up with Trkyklr for a week of uninterrupted hunting and woods work. IF I could ,,,i'd like to sit around a campfire for a couple of days with Jim Casada and Tom Kelly and a few others , with no pressure of time, no rush of time, just to talk turkey.

I would dearly love to do what I was privileged to do hundreds of times in an earlier life, discuss the upcoming morning's hunt with Kenny Morgan. Where to go, exactly where one would be likely to encounter a gobbler, and perhaps, more importantly, why. How one should approach said gobbler should he be there. What one might say to entice the gobbler and what instrument one might use to do the enticing. What this particular gobbler had done on previous mornings and whether he was was likely to do much the same this morning. And even discussions on whether one should even hunt that particular gobbler because of the effect of past encounters or the morning's weather on the behavior of the gobbler. Following these discussions we would leave separately on our own hunts to create our own memories for that particular day.

Upon return, we would relate each other's hunt and either show off our gobbler or more often in my case, show my humility. To discuss what went wrong and what went right. This was the way to learn to hunt America's great game bird, the Wild Turkey. All alone on the actual hunt, but constantly remembering what one greater than I had perhaps merely alluded to concerning a similar situation that he had encountered.

And I miss the places, the big timber where the monarchs rattled the woods. The timber that no longer exists because of the chainsaw and changing timber practices, practices that insure that I shall never again hear those woods rattle with the gobble of the wild turkey.

More importantly, on this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks for the memories.

I don't know so much that my "IF" is a place, I'd just like my IF to be more TIME to spend turkey hunting in the Spring. Seems that the Gobblers are pretty henned up early on and when things are most interesting, I seem to have people & things pulling me in all different sorts of directions away from the woods. I maybe get one day a week to hunt. Next thing I know the woods are pretty quiet and the birds are real wary.

I guess since IF is the name of this thread, it would be real nice IF I could hunt starting in Fla. and work my way to N.Y. enjoying all the prime part of the season in each State along the way.